Financial progress comes second only to goals around diet and exercise when it comes New Year’s resolutions, and yet, many folks don’t know where to start when it comes to mapping out a financial future. While most of our resolutions understandably tend to be proactive, there is often just as much benefit to be had from excising a bad financial habit as there is adopting a new, positive one. With that in mind, we’d invite you to consider this list of potential financial do’s and don’ts for the new year:

20 resolutions for 2020: 

  1. Spend less than you make, period
  2. Work with an advisor to get a formal financial plan
  3. Own the world: diversify within and between asset classes
  4. Splurge, but only infrequently to maximize happiness
  5. Read at least one book per month
  6. Invest in your mind and skillset
  7. Spend money in ways that increase happiness: charitable giving and time with loved ones
  8. Automate every part of your financial life
  9. Teach someone else about the power of saving and investing
  10. Learn to savor and appreciate what you already have
  11. Save at least 1% more than you did last year
  12. Check out your credit report
  13. Declutter: get rid of everything you don’t use or love
  14. Make a (realistic) budget
  15. Track your net worth
  16. Make one extra mortgage payment
  17. Create a “vision board” with your three top financial goals
  18. Make bite-sized financial goals with rewards for completion
  19. Choose experiences over stuff
  20. Rebalance at least yearly
19 things we are leaving in 2019:
  1. Benchmarking to the S&P 500
  2. Keeping up with the Joneses
  3. Conflating negativity and bearishness with sophistication
  4. Unnecessarily complicated products
  5. Confusing a place to live with an investment
  6. End of year price targets and specific forecasts
  7. Raising lifestyle when income rises
  8. Reaching for yield
  9. Watching histrionic financial news coverage
  10. Depreciating assets
  11. Confusing our desires for an asset with its future trajectory
  12. Talking about 10% corrections as though they are rare
  13. The idea of getting rich quick
  14. The illusion of certainty when it comes to markets (or life, for that matter)
  15. Unnecessary consumer debt
  16. Co-signing loans
  17. Short-term thinking
  18. Sacrificing health and happiness for a paycheck
  19. Assuming that the future will look like the recent past
The views expressed are those of Brinker Capital and are not intended as investment advice or recommendation. For informational purposes only. Brinker Capital, Inc., a registered investment advisor.

Tagged: Daniel Crosby, behavioral finance, financial resolutions